This page is... UNDER CONSTRUCTION
WARNING: I am not an expert on cars, automotive engineering, VW Beetles, beach buggies or anything else discussed in these pages. What I have written is my current understanding of the issues involved in building Tina's buggy. These opinions are based only on my own research in books and on the web. They, therefore, have no basis in fact, may well be wrong and potentially downright dangerous if taken to be gospel truth. If you intend to use any of this information for any purpose other than pure entertainment, then please get its validity confirmed by someone who knows what they're talking about! You have been warned...
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The chassis for Tina's buggy is made from an IRS back end from a 1303 Beetle and a Ball-Joint (BJ) front end from a post-65 standard Beetle using the 'Cut and shut two donor IRS/ball-joint chassis' method described in the 'Design Detail' section of Rick's buggy site. The shortening method used is very similar to the 'VolksMagic Cut', in that the central tunnel top and bottom plates are unpicked so that the welded joins in the top and bottom of the tunnel are separated. However, this chassis was only unpicked for 6-8 inches, rather than all the way to the front cross-member, as it is with the VolksMagic method. This is the closest I've seen to the shortening method advocated by Volkswagenwerk in their September 1969 document 'Verkurzung des Typ 1 - Rahmens fur den Dune Buggy, as described by Paul Shakespeare in his book 'Building a Dune Buggy: The Essential Manual'.
Click here to see a slide show of the Tina's buggy chassis as it was when it was bought.